2010 SS Project Car - Preventive Measures

Our 2010 SS Project Gets New Axles Capable Of Handling Huge Power.

If you want to find the weak links in your Camaro, just start upping the horsepower. Now, we don't blame GM for this. After all, they built the Camaro's drivetrain and other systems to hold up to the power output of a stock LS3 (or L99) and it's not their fault that us gearheads feel the need to add hundreds of additional horsepower in a never-ending quest to go faster.

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With our 2010 SS project car, affectionately referred to as Project CP/28, the power output of the LS3 under the hood has gone from a bit over 400 to way over 700 ponies. That extra 300 hp wreaks havoc on all the bits associated with getting that power from the crank to the asphalt. Add a set of sticky tires, and our Camaro is just a clutch dump away from calling a tow truck.

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One area that really gets abused is the rear axles. The '10 employs an IRS system, and the axles just weren't engineered to withstand hard launching the nearly 4,000lb SS. Once axles started snapping in protest, the aftermarket stepped up with a solution-namely stronger axle assemblies. One such company, Gforce Engineering, introduced two sets of axles for high-output fifth-gen Camaros. For rides churning out over 1,000 hp, they have a set manufactured from super-strong 300M alloy, and for the rest of us mere mortals, a slightly less robust (and less expensive) set made from 4340 chrome-moly. These would fit in perfect with our plans for our project. Aside from the strength, the Gforce axles are also designed to minimize wheelhop, which can cause all sorts of unfortunate breakage. With axles in hand, we headed over to Don Lee Auto in Rancho Cucamonga to do the swap. Of course, upgrading these axles will only serve to expose the next weak link in our powertrain chain, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

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2010 SS Project Car - Preventive Measures

G-Force offers two axle packages: the top tier, made from 300M and priced at $1,799, is certified for well over 1,000 hp, while the other, 4340 alloy, is for Camaros making 1,000 hp or less. The main differences in the two are the materials used. Since we plan on staying under that magic 1,000hp mark, we went with their 4340 units, which run $1,599 for the pair. As the name implies, these axles are made from certified aircraft-grade billet 4340 and employ 4340 billet inner bolt-together axle stubs, 4340 billet axle bars, and billet 4340 outer stubs. All the material GForce uses comes from a 100-year-old U.S. steel mill, and all their machining is done in house.

Here is where the stock GM axle interfaces with the spindle and drive bearing.

The first step in removing the GM axles was to unbolt the caliper and remove the rear brake rotor.

We then removed the large nut that secured the axle to the hub.

The rear IRS upright assembly is secured to the car in four places: the toe rod, trailing arms, lower control arm, and upper control arm. Here we unbolted the toe rod from the upright.

We then unbolted the upper control arm and trailing arm from the upright. This allowed us to swing the assembly down.

Here is the left Gforce axle next to its OEM counterpart. But this is about more than just strength. According to Gforce, "GM developed the anti-wheelhop technology years ago and we have refined it to further eliminate wheelhop. This has been very successful for us in the GTO, CTS-V, G8, and Camaro markets. The left-hand axle is regular diameter, while the right-hand axle has an increased diameter. The design and material we use is what eliminates the wheelhop."

Using a small pry bar, we continued to swing the upright downward until the splines were clear.

Believe it or not, the only thing keeping the axle in place is the fact that it's sandwiched between the upright and the differential. We only had to give it a little yank and it popped free of the differential.

One area where these axles gain a ton of strength is in the improved CV joints. The Gforce units are custom-built in-house and utilize 4340 heavy-duty CV cages. They are then subjected to a special aerospace heat treat process for added strength. The axles are also modular and the parts between the 4340 and 300M axles are interchangeable. This makes doing upgrades easy, and if you happen to damage an inner stub it can be replaced for around $150 instead of having to buy an entire stub assembly.

The new axle snapped into the differential as easily as the old one came out. The Gforce axles come with a baked-on black aerospace e-coat finish to protect them from the elements.

We then secured the axle to the upright assembly with the new nut supplied in the kit.

With the axle seated in the differential, we only had to slide the outer end into the upright. According to Gforce, "The strongest axle design is one that provides a constant twist for the entire length of the axle. If you make the axle larger, or the same size as the splined end, then it concentrates all the twisting loads directly into the splined area and doesn't allow it to properly twist. It would be much easier for us to make the axle the same diameter throughout, but this extra step results in a stronger piece."

Lastly, we reattached the suspension components to the upright assembly and tightened everything down. The right side of the car was done in the exact same way, and the whole deal took us less than an hour to complete. Now we need to hit the track, drop the hammer, and see what our '10 Camaro can do. At least this will be one less thing we'll have to worry about breaking.

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